Steven Bankole Rhodes
His parents were both Saros, members of a community of Recaptive individuals of Nigerian ancestry that had been settled in Sierra Leone by the British following their emancipation and who had later returned to Nigeria.
On 21 January 1942, Rhodes was nominated as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Nigeria,[2] assuming office as the Richards constitution came into force.
On 9 October 1945, King George VI gave directions for the appointment of Steven Bankole Rhodes C.B.E.
[8] He was the first Nigerian lawyer to be elevated to the Supreme Court Bench straight from the Bar, assuming his role on 8 November 1945 .
[10] One of the most famous and controversial cases brought before him was the trial of Heelas Ugokwe, a Nigerian postal worker, for the attempted assassination of colonial official H.M.
Heelas Ugokwe, a postal worker who in the midst of a countrywide crackdown on anti-colonial activists, carried out an assassination attempt on Colonial Chief Secretary, Hugh Foot.
The judge gave Ugowe the maximum life[11] Nnamdi Azikiwe, a political activist who would later serve as the president of Nigeria, is quoted as asking in response to the judgement: In which law book did Mr. S. B. Rhodes read that a type of Ugokwe's charge was punished by life?The judgment infuriated Dr. Azikiwe and his fellow Zikists, who had come to regard Heelas as a champion for Nigeria's liberation.
On 23 September 1942, King George VI gave directions for the appointment of Steven Bankole Rhodes, Esq.
[12] Before World War II, the educated elements - with a few exceptions - were excluded, not only from the central government, but also from the native administration of the country.
As a result, three individuals were elected from the township of Lagos and one from Calabar by an electorate composed of the wealthier members of the communities .
Rhodes) were appointed to the governor's executive council in 1943, but both were considered by the colonists to be ‘safe’ government men.
Many Nigerians tended to belittle this inclusion of two of their countrymen in the Executive Council; Sir Bernard Bourdillon was obliged to remark in 1944:“The importance of the step …received insufficient notice locally, chiefly because those Africans appointed were not of the same political colour as the press, but it was a real step forward, unofficial Africans now for the first time being in the inner Councils of the Governor.” It was later said of these newly appointed leaders, S. B. Rhodes and A. Alakija of Nigeria, and others, excelled with brilliance of speech and of pen.
[14]On the first of January, 1943, King George VI conferred the honour of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire on Steven Bankole Rhodes, Esq.
